Knotweed

I was pleased to notice this morning that the knotweed noticed at reference 1 is very nearly dead, with just one rather weedy shoot.

And less offensive weeds are starting to grow into the space, which suggests that something clever was used to kill it off, rather than something which sterilises the patch of ground involved for years, in the way of a strong dose of sodium chlorate - the stuff which can be used to make quite effective bangs and was still available in Boots when I was a child. In my case used to make a pillar of flame in the kitchen, pillar enough to make a nasty mark on the kitchen ceiling. I don't recall my parents doing anything particularly severe about it, beyond getting a neighbouring don who knew about chemistry to give me a bit of a talking to about foolish experiments.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/knotweed.html.